An immersive art platform that treats the movie theatre as its raw material has landed in Kuala Lumpur. Xinemarte, developed by Los Angeles-based creative technology company SQNXR, made its Malaysia premiere as a special programme at the 9th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), according to Variety.

The Kuala Lumpur rollout began a day ahead of MIFFest's opening night, making it the second stop in Xinemarte's Asian expansion after a soft launch in Taipei. The platform is built specifically to convert underutilised cinema spaces — those darkened auditoriums sitting empty between screenings — into premium immersive audiovisual experiences, as Variety reported in March.

At the centre of the Malaysia programme is "The Room Remembers," Xinemarte's first thematic chapter. Its inaugural presentation is "Fluid," a 25-minute audiovisual work by SQNXR creative director Ray Tijssen, who operates under the alias 0010×0010. Born in the Netherlands and now based in Los Angeles, Tijssen has previously mounted installations at MOCA Bangkok, W1 London and TODA Dubai.

"Fluid" uses cinematic-scale projection and Dolby Atmos surround sound — the same audio technology found in commercial multiplexes — to create a shared sensory environment inside the theatre. The cinema auditorium itself, not a screen within it, is the primary artistic medium. MIFFest audiences attended a post-screening Q&A with Tijssen about the creative process behind the work and the concept underpinning "The Room Remembers."

Xinemarte runs on a distinctive model: 25-minute cycles with staggered start times, so audiences can enter and exit freely rather than committing to a fixed showtime. Programming is updated monthly across family-friendly and adult-oriented categories. That structure leans into the gallery drop-in habit rather than the cinema's locked-seat protocol, and it is designed to fill auditoriums that would otherwise sit dark.

The business architecture behind the rollout is worth noting. Jazzy Group of Companies, a Malaysia-based entertainment company and MIFFest organiser, holds the exclusive Asia sales mandate for Xinemarte. Jazzy Group CEO Joanne Goh also founded MIFFest, putting the festival and the sales operation under one roof. SQNXR, for its part, positions its technology as flexible and affordable, accommodating limited budgets and clients who prefer to avoid subscription commitments, according to the company's website. The company's client base spans private collectors through to large-scale venues.

Following the Malaysia run, Xinemarte is set to expand to Singapore, Hong Kong and additional markets across Asia. The platform's pitch to venue operators is straightforward: cinema infrastructure already exists in cities worldwide, and the seats, screens and sound systems sitting unused for much of the week can be turned into a different kind of attraction.